The Other Side
by Luxurien
Summary: <html><head></head>Itachi is a bored lawyer for Varina corporations, a company based on virtual reality. In particular, it is known for the medival fantasy game "Varina." Kisame is a backpacker who travels from place to place, never quite finding what he's looking for. One day, both decide to try out the game and find exactly what they were looking for.</html>
1. Welcome to Varina!

The Other Side – Chapter 1: Welcome to Varina

-.-.-

Rating: M, contains yaoi and lemons (mostly later on)

Pairing: Kisame/Itachi

-.-.-

"Thanks for letting me crash here for tonight." Kisame said, lounging on his college friend's couch. Kisame had dark beady black eyes and navy blue hair. His skin was also strangely blue – something that ran in his family. He was tall, towering over almost everyone he met, with large muscles built from his time backpacking or at the gym. When backpacking, gyms were a godsend, with a one day membership one could get access to showers and get a chance to exercise. Kisame spent a lot of time in gyms.

"No problem." Graham responded, "It's been a long time since I've seen you around, what have you been up to?" Graham was significantly shorter then Kisame, and the two made a good match together. Graham had sandy brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, and freckles. He and Kisame were complete opposites, yet somehow they were roommates all through college and became the best of friends.

"Oh not much, the usual. Odd jobs here and there, traveling the country. I still haven't quite found the place I'm looking for."

"Haven't you found anything at least interesting?"

"Not really. Maybe there isn't a place for me in this world."

"There's a place for everyone in this world." Graham said seriously. "By the way, want to try out this game I've been playing? It's called Varina. Try it while I'm at work, you'll like it." As Graham said this, he fixed his tie and picked up his suitcase.

"Eh… Sure, why not?" Kisame said. It couldn't hurt right?

"I'll be back at 5:30." Graham smiled. "Help yourself to whatever you need Kisame."

"Thanks Graham." With that, Graham left.

Kisame walked over to the computer with the virtual reality helmet and decided to give it a whirl. He booted up the computer and double clicked "Varina." Instantly a message popped up.

[Please put on your virtual reality helmet and place your hands and feet on the designated game mats.]

Kisame lifted the helmet and studied it – he would have to adjust it to fit his head size. The game mats were easy enough to find. Kisame quickly adjusted the helmet and placed it over his head – there was a wire connecting it to the USB port on the PC. Kisame then placed his feet on the game mat, dropped the visor of the helmet over his eyes, and placed his hands where he knew the game mat would be. Immediately afterwards a screen showed up where his eyes were.

[We do not recognize your DNA signature, are you a new player or would you like to recalibrate for your existing ID?]

Kisame only had to think – _new player –_ and the screen changed to a profile creation.

[Your DNA signature has been recorded. What would you like your public user ID to be? This ID can be changed anytime and does not have to be unique.]

_Shark._

[Please enter the following information…]

Kisame went through filling out information such as passwords, age, height, birthday etc.

[Now, to character creation! Do you know about the world of Varina or should I explain?]

_Explain._

[In Varina there are four classes of characters. The Warrior, The Mage, The Thief and the Archer. Each class has subclasses of abilities, but as long as you belong to the class you can choose how your abilities are allotted. For example, a mage can learn fire, water, earth, wind or healing magic – or all of the magics. Specializing in one can give more power but evenly allotting power can allow for a more rounded character. In addition there are "jobs" That your character can take on and gain abilities for, some classes are more predisposed to certain types of jobs. These jobs can be anything from blacksmithing to cooking. Do you understand, or should I repeat?]

_I understand._

[What class would you like to choose?]

_Warrior._

[Warriors are the tanks – they are powerful and have the most health and great power. They are predisposed to jobs such as mining and blacksmithing. They can use a variety of weapons such as swords, lances, and axes. Are you sure you would like to choose the path of the warrior?]

_I'm sure._

[Excellent! Your character will automatically have the same build, gender and height as you in reality to make it easier to move within the game. If you wish however, you may change that but it may be uncomfortable to get used to switching between reality and the game. Would you like to change your build, gender and/or height?]

_No._

[Excellent! Now you can choose things such as skin color, eye color, hair style, and other customizations for your character.]

Kisame choose to have a character with ebony skin with scars and tattoos all over. It seemed most warrior-like after all. However, Kisame loved his blue hair and decided his character would also have blue hair – however unlike in reality, his hair was long and swung to his shoulders as long, wispy tendrils. He choose to have golden eyes and decided his warrior would wear heavy armor.

[You are now ready to play Varina! You will start out in the starter town of Mallowbank. There, you will learn how to control your character and some basics of the game. Please enjoy your time in the world of Varina!]

With that, the world around Kisame shifted and he found himself in a seaside town with many shacks, coconut trees and children building sand castles.

[To move, imagine moving as you normally would.]

Kisame moved forward.

[Excellent! Now go speak to Herald in the town. Find him by asking around, to initiate conversation do the same thing you would do in reality.]

Kisame decided Herald would likely be near the cluster of shacks that these people called a town. Walking towards the town, Kisame marveled at how far people and gaming had come. When he was in college, to play games you had to move a mouse and keyboard or have a joystick of some sort. Now all you had to do was think. Back then, you had to look at a computer screen, now you saw the entire world. Things had changed and Kisame hadn't even noticed because he was backpacking, not catching up with the latest technology.

As he approached town, he noticed a woman dressed in expected beach garb and he approached her.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can find Herald?"

"Oh Herald? The woman smiled back. "He's in the shack with a flag of a star outside."

"Thank you." Kisame nodded to her and went off to find the shack with the flag of a star.

"Are you an NPC or a real person?" A voice asked Kisame and Kisame suddenly turned around to see a _beautiful_ man with shoulder length black hair and swirling red eyes. His stature was significantly smaller then Kisame's, but he was handsome and stood tall and confident.

"I'm a real person."

"Oh good, I was getting quite bored of speaking to these NPCs, they repeat the same dialog over and over."

"Oh really? I hadn't noticed. I just started."

"Oh me too, I've been here for about three hours."

"Three hours! That's not 'just started,' that's a long time. Why are you still in the starter town, are the quests really that long here?"

"Quests? There are quests to do?" The man looked up at Kisame questioningly.

"Well.. I .. What else could it be that search for Herald?" Kisame asked, wondering if he misunderstood the objective.

"Oh that, I haven't even bothered searching for him yet. It's boring to just follow the script so I was doing things my own way."

"Are you having fun?"

"No." Kisame almost laughed. Here was someone who was trying to entertain himself by not following the preset path and just bored himself doing so.

"Then let's go find Herald."

"Okay." The man seemed to smile. Seemed to. It was hard to tell because his facial expressions barely moved.

"My name's Kisame by the way."

"I'm Itachi."

The two went to the shack with the flag and an old man with white hair and a long beard walked over to them, his walking cane hitting the ground before him making small sounds as it did so.

"You two must be new around here. By chance could you help out an old man like me?" The man asked.

"Sure." Itachi said, at the exact same time Kisame said "Are you Herald?" The two looked at each other simultaneously as the words left their mouths.

"I am indeed Herald. I am but an old man and my days are numbered. What I wouldn't do for some crab legs. Could you please get me some crab legs? I haven't been able to eat such delicious food in so long."

"How many crab legs?" Itachi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hmm… about fifty should do."

"What the heck do you do with these crab legs? Open a shop?" Kisame asked, unbelieving that this old man would actually eat fifty whole crab legs.

"Kisame, it's an NPC. He doesn't do anything with them, he just wants us to go train by killing some crabs."

"Oh, right."

"I've got about three hundred crab legs."

"You what?!"

"I was bored so I killed some crabs."

"_Some?"_

"Okay more then some."

"What level are you?"

"Nine."

"You're level nine already, you don't even need to be here."

"Yeah, but you do. How about we kill some crabs so you can get experience?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah, but won't you be bored?"

"Nah, I've got you for company. Better then the NPCs."

"Okay…" Kisame wondered whether he should just ditch the weirdo.

"Before you go…" Herald began. "You need weapons. I see you're a powerful warrior, I've got quite a few weapons here… Which would you like?"

"This old man just carries weapons around?"

"It's a game Kisame, he's supposed to give us our starting equipment."

"Wait how did you kill the crabs if you didn't have any weapons, you haven't met Herald yet."

"With my hands." Itachi responded spookily.

"Er…" Kisame was once again struck by the oddity before him.

"It's not that hard."

"And you I see are a young mage, what weapon would you like to choose?"

"We'll come look." Itachi told Herald, and the two entered the shack.

After taking a look at the display of cracked weapons, Kisame choose a cracked greatsword and Itachi choose a cracked wand.

"Now then," Herald said now that the two had chosen their weapons. "The crabs are located by the beach, be careful not to run into the large ones, they hurt!"

"Thank you." Itachi responded. "We will be back with your crab legs."

The two set out, with Kisame following Itachi, who knew exactly where the crabs were.

"So, why are you playing this game?" Itachi asked as they approached the crab filled beach.

"Eh, a friend asked me to try it out. I was backpacking through Minnesota and thought I'd crash at his place."

"Backpacking? That sounds interesting."

"Oh it is, you get to see all kinds of cool things and places. Why are you playing this game?"

"Just thought I'd see what the fuss was about."

"How were you still playing after three hours of boredom? Why not just shut off the PC and do something you enjoy?"

"I didn't have anything better to do." Itachi seemed almost sad.

"So how do we kill these things?" Kisame asked, changing the subject.

"Just swing your weapon I suppose? I'll try and see if I can use magic myself."

With that, the two began their experiment with their new weapons. Kisame found it was actually quite easy to attack by swinging his sword around and was able to kill the crabs quite easily. Itachi found he could do a simple energy bolt and kill the crabs. The items were automatically looted and dispersed to the players, with a message on the side of the "screen" showing the items that were brought in. Kisame also took this time to notice his health bar, mana bar and experience bar.

"Let's add each other as friends." Itachi said after they turned in their crab legs to Herald and got some torn leather clothes and some experience.

"How do we do that?"

"Just imagine your friend list and a menu should appear, from the menu we can add eachother via our unique ID number that should appear when the friends menu appears, or we can just point at the person we are trying to add."

"You sure know a lot about the game."

"I read the manual."

"People actually read manuals?"

"I do." Itachi shrugged.

"I probably should have." Kisame admitted as he pulled up his friends menu.

"Now whenever we play the game, we can see if the other is online, talk to each other even if we aren't right there or send offline messages. It's pretty useful. The offline messages can even be read on your cellphone." Itachi lectured. "You can also check your character levels and stats and friends stats from your cellphone."

"Geez, technology these days." Kisame was not tech savvy, he didn't even own a smart phone.

-.-.-

Itachi and Kisame ended up spending the next six hours together going from their starting place all the way to a town called Roseham. Kisame couldn't believe how much fun it was to have a companion to speak to for that long – indeed he had spent the past four years of his life backpacking with little companionship. Somehow meeting the odd Itachi had awoken something in him – a realization that maybe what he was searching for this entire time was a friend.

"I have to go." Kisame said, sadly. "My friend should be back soon." Kisame did not want to say goodbye to his new friend – who he knew already he would probably never see again.

"Okay." The red eye'd man looked sad. "Can we play again tomorrow? I'll send you a message offline."

"I actually… Sure." Kisame said finally, unable to say no. "Let's meet again tomorrow."

With that, Kisame reluctantly logged off and took off his helmet.

-.-.-

_What do I do now? _Kisame pondered, wanting to play the game more. He didn't have a place of his own, or even a smartphone with which to contact Itachi though. With a sigh, Kisame got up and decided to get some dinner ready for Graham.

-.-.-


	2. Crow

The Other Side – Chapter 2

-.-.-

"Hey Graham." Kisame grinned as his old friend entered the apartment.

"That smells delicious, what did you make?" Graham closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of food cooking as he dropped his suitcase by the door.

"Tuscan tomato soup, garlic & chicken Stromboli and for dessert, crème brulee."

"Geez, I forgot how good of a cook you are." Graham walked into the kitchen and looked at the great setup. The thick tuscan tomato soup was situated inside of a white porcelean bowl with basil leaves on top and a white cream making a whirlpool swirl. The soup was in the center of a large dish. The long, baguette like bread was cut into slices with the garlicy chicken in the center, perfectly made so the bread was soft inside, and was laid out around the large dish with the soup in the center. On the side was a larger pan with the crème brulee custard. "And you set it up so nicely too."

"It's the one thing I'm useful for." Kisame joked.

"Mm, give me a moment to get changed and let's eat, I'm starving." Graham was practically drooling, and his eyes sparkling at the sight of the food.

"Sure, I'll set up the table and get drinks."

"Don't tell me…"

"I made strawberry limeade."

"Kisame, you should visit more often." Graham laughed and headed out to his bedroom.

Kisame smiled at the compliment and got the dishes out of the cabinets, thinking about how he would ask Graham if he could stay an extra day. It felt rude to intrude, but he really wanted to play the game one more time - and he did somehow promise Itachi.

_I shouldn't have promised that – I might not be able to keep it. _Kisame sighed as he thought about it.

With the dishes, silverware, and napkins in hand, Kisame set the table. Then he went back to the kitchen and picked up the jug with the strawberry limeade and brought it to the table.

"I love eating the strawberries after I finish the limeade." Graham remarked, watching the cut strawberry pieces at the bottom of the jug topple one another as Kisame poured the drinks.

"Don't we all?" Kisame asked, putting the jug down now that the drinks were poured.

"I suppose we do." Graham began to fill his plate. "Also, I've been meaning to ask you whether you tried out Varnia?"

"I did, and I had a lot of fun." Kisame answered, his mind back on his request.

"Oh that's awesome! If you play more often we can party together and you can join my guild. What class did you play as?"

"I played as the warrior. You know how it is, I always like playing tanks." Kisame thought of their college days when they played MMOs together.

"Nothing changed I guess." Graham took a bite of the strombolli. "This is delicious, mm seriously. I don't know how you make this stuff."

"It's magic." Kisame waved his hand in the air. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you, is it okay if I stay one more day?"

Graham looked crestfallen, and instantly Kisame regretted asking the question. "I'm sorry, my girlfriend is coming back tomorrow, you know how it is…"

"Oh, of course, I understand. Don't worry about it." Kisame said waving his hand dismissively.

_Sorry Itachi… It looks like I won't be meeting you tomorrow after all._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Two Years Later

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Kisame finished typing up his report and closed the window on his PC. Sliding back in his swivel chair, he quickly e-mailed the report to his boss, Haku and stepped out, stretching. A glance at the clock told him it was lunch time, and that he had been typing for the past four and a half hours.

Kisame stepped forward and headed to his boss's office, sliding his phone off the desk and into his pocket as he did so.

Haku had his door open, but Kisame knocked anyway.

"Come in." Zabuza's voice called. Kisame entered and noticed Zabuza was sitting on one of the chairs for guests to sit in, wearing casual attire. Zabuza was the owner of the company, but rarely showed up to work. Right now, he was on his phone, the app for "Varnia" clearly open. Interested Kisame watched as Zabuza clicked through various icons.

"Yes?" Haku asked, noticing Kisame's interest in Zabuza.

"Er, I just wanted to let you know I turned in the report, it's in your e-mail and that I am going on lunch break." Kisame responded, forcing his attention away.

"Thank you Kisame." Haku smiled sweetly, his long black hair and large chocolate brown eyes resembled that of a girl and his features were nothing short of beautiful.

"Do you play Varnia, Kisame?" Zabuza asked, glancing sideways at the burly accountant.

"I haven't played in a long time, but I've been meaning to play again." Kisame said. "I played only once."

"Let's have lunch together." Zabuza said, getting up from the chair and clicking his phone shut. "My treat."

"Sure." Kisame shrugged.

"What do you like?" Zabuza asked, walking past Kisame. Zabuza's height and stature was large, just like Kisame's. Not quite on the same level, but it was pretty close.

"Anything's fine."

"Mexican?"

"Sure."

"Good, I was craving something like that." Zabuza said, getting out his car keys and swinging them through his finger. "When you played Varnia, what class did you choose?"

"Warrior." Kisame said, reminiscing about a certain mage. "In particular I liked using the greatswords."

"Me too. I figured as much considering our stature makes us great candidates for the warrior class. Tall and muscular are both requirements to use great swords."

"I didn't know there were requirements like that." Kisame said, intrigued.

"Well they aren't official, but if you're shorter then the sword you carry it can be a real pain, and lifting them is more difficult. The game does follow some real life laws and your stats are partially based on your stature." Zabuza pressed a button twice on his key and his white convertible beeped and lit up twice in response, opening the doors to the car.

"That's interesting, but at least they leave the option for those who are shorter but want to play." Kisame opened the passenger seat and got in, as Zabuza got behind the wheel.

"Yeah. So hey, when were you planning to get back into the game?" Zabuza asked.

"I was actually thinking maybe now." Kisame thought. _I'm finally ready to face Itachi… If he even remembers me. _

Immediately after leaving Graham's apartment, Kisame called his father and said he was coming home to Georgia. It was a long trip back, but Kisame was finally ready to settle down in one place – he found what he was looking for and he intended to make it happen.

Kisame had graduated near the top of his class in business and accounting, but instead of taking a job he went backpacking. With a four year break between his degree and any job he wouldn't have been able to get straight back into the work force – so instead he studied and finally took his test to become a CPA, which he passed with flying colors. After passing he got a few job offers, but took one offered by an old friend of his father's – Zabuza Momichi.

Zabuza had started this exercise equipment company himself, and after working hard at it for fifteen years he let his prodigy, Haku take over. He was still the owner, but Haku was the CEO. Kisame joined the company as an accountant and had been working there for over a year now. He didn't mind living with his parents so he saved up his money to make a down payment on a house – which he finally managed to save up for. Now with a place of his own and a solid job going for him, Kisame was finally ready to begin playing Varnia again, with the hope of meeting Itachi.

It wasn't just companionship that Kisame had been craving this entire time – no if that was all he would've been happy with his friends like Graham – it was something else that Kisame couldn't quite place just yet. His short friendship with Itachi was something that filled the void in his being, the very thing he went searching for when he began backpacking all those years ago.

_I hope he can forgive me for not keeping our promise. _Kisame had spent a significant amount of time the past two years remembering the sharp red eyes and beautiful black hair that adorned Itachi's porcelain, doll-like face. He would think about how the man spent his time in a game attempting to speak to NPCs or exploring the menus instead of actually playing the game, about how he had the answer to everything from reading so much. He thought about the sad look on the man's face when his mind would occasionally drift, or the beautiful smile that would fill his face when he spoke to Kisame. Or he would think about their conversations about life, their families, and what brought them to this game. Indeed, they had spent a significant amount of their time just talking, and that was just perfect. And yet somehow, they had also spent a long time not talking at all, and the silence suited them just fine. It was perfect, they seemed to compliment each other somehow. No one else had done that to Kisame, especially in such a short time period.

"Well in that case why don't you join my guild?" Zabuza asked, breaking Kisame's daydreams of the past.

"Guilds?"

"Guilds are basically groups that you join. My guild is called Abyss and it's an all warrior guild. Haku is a member as well."

"Oh really? I guess I'll join then." Kisame said. "I'll just have to go buy the game tonight."

"Great! I'll e-mail you my in game ID and you can just add me to your friends list as soon as you login. I'll help you get started again." Zabuza said as he pulled into the Mexican restaurant.

-.-.-

Kisame's day ended up being ridiculously long – he got off work at 5, then went to the store to buy all the things he needed, and he needed a lot of things. Afterwards was an hour drive to his home in the countryside. He didn't even get home until 7:30. He pulled into the driveway of his two story house – houses were a lot cheaper in the country – and opened his door. Breathing in the fresh scent of the after rain air made everything worthwhile. With a stretch, Kisame began to take all the boxes inside and to what would become his entertainment room.

Kisame sighed as he observed everything he would have to setup. He didn't have a computer, so he just got one. He didn't have a table for the computer, so he had to buy that. Then it turns out you need a chair to go with a computer table so he had to buy that. Then he had to buy a mousepad, a router, all the wires required for internet, and speakers. Then there was the game system and the game itself.

_This is one expensive hobby. _Kisame thought to himself as he quickly texted Zabuza letting him know there was no way he was going to have time to play tonight with all this setting up to do. _Oh, and I have to call the internet company and get some internet in here, this game is online after all. _

All in all, Kisame was convinced this was a total waste of time and money – if not for the fact that it connected him to Itachi. Kisame chuckled to himself thinking that he probably sounded like his miserly friend Kakuzu. After sending his text, Kisame went downstairs and hunted down his trusty toolbox. It was time to put together the computer desk.

It took Kisame about four hours to finish building the desk, setting up the computer and router, and finally calling the cable company to get internet set up. He hadn't even opened his game system or game yet and he was completely exhausted. He had work tomorrow, but he pushed himself to get this done today so he could start right away tomorrow. With that thought, Kisame ripped open the game system box and picked up the instruction manual.

It proved to be pretty easy – it took only about fifteen minutes to set up. _Now if only setting everything else up was this easy. _Kisame thought. _Should I try turning the game on, or should I just call it a night?_

A simple glance at the clock told him it was time to call it a night. It was 2 am and he had to wake up at 8 am for work.

-.-.-

"So I hear you're joining our guild." Haku said conversationally at Kisame's desk, coffee in hand.

"Yeah, it seems interesting." Kisame said, not at all interested.

"You seem pretty tired, how about you take this coffee and I'll get myself another?" Haku smiled and handed his coffee to Kisame. It was a lie probably, the coffee was probably for Kisame to begin with – Haku didn't need coffee to get up in the mornings. He was an early riser and positively radiant at all times of the day. You could probably wake him up in the middle of the night and he would be as beautiful and perfectly made as he would be the rest of the day.

"Thank you, Haku." Kisame accepted the coffee gratefully. One sip told Kisame it was definitely made for him – it was exactly how he liked it. "Your thoughtfulness knows no bounds."

Haku only smiled. "It'll be fun playing with you, but you don't really seem the type to like games, so why the interest?"

Kisame paused and wondered whether he should tell Haku, as he was thinking about it the wonderful vanilla scent of the coffee reached Kisame's nose. Haku was a good friend, what was the harm in telling him?

"I met someone in the game two years ago and I want to meet him again."

"What's he like?" Haku asked. "If he still plays I might know him. I know a lot of people in the game."

It couldn't hurt. "He has red eyes and black hair, tied back in a pony tail. His code name is Crow and he's a mage. It was his first time playing, just like me."

"Crow? You know _the _Crow?"

"You know him?"

"He's kind of famous, but not many know his actual name. I can't believe you know him."

"Why's that?"

"Online most people hide their identities and give fake names, Crow is one of those. Like I said, he's famous. He's one of the top players in the server and isn't aligned with any guild. It's almost impossible to find him and he doesn't make friends. It's very unusual for a mage to be a lone wolf, but he's definitely one. Probably the only lone wolf mage in the server."

"Wow, how am I going to find him?" Kisame thought aloud.

"At least you know he still plays." Haku shrugged. "I mean, assuming it's the same person – which it probably is because this crow started playing about two years ago and he was the first Crow – the others are all copies. If he hadn't played before, it had to have been the original."

"Why is he so famous?"

"For one– he's a top player but he was also one of the three to win an event over a year ago that won him this famous – the prize for the event was a rare griffin pet. Everyone wants the griffin, it's probably the most sought after pet. That and he is one of the only players who can solo the dragon boss."

"Ah." Kisame said, his mind drifting. _He's so good at this game, and I'm no one. He probably wouldn't want to play with me. And he's a lone wolf. But he played with me before… _Kisame wasn't sure how to handle this new information just yet, but some part of him was excited – all this wait wasn't for naught. Itachi may be far away, but he wasn't completely unreachable. Haku was right, at least he still played. If he had stopped, it might have been impossible to find him.

-.-.-

Kisame turned on his PC and game mat, placing the helmet over his head once more. How long had it been since he had played this game? A very long time, yet he remembered exactly what he had to do to play.

[Welcome back to Varnia! I see you have not logged in for a long time, would you like to do the tutorial over again?]

_No._

[Very well then! Enjoy your time in Varnia!]

The world was like a mosaic for a moment before Kisame found himself in Roseham, the last place he remembered being with Itachi. Kisame felt a pang of sorrow as he saw the exact location he and Itachi had said their goodbyes two years prior.

Shaking his head of the thoughts, Kisame pulled up his friends list where a lone "Crow" was currently logged off. _ If he appears offline to me it means he either deleted me from his friends list or he is actually logged off. I hope it's the latter. _

Kisame quickly thought of Zabuza's ID and Zabuza's name showed up in instantly as one of those logged in. Moments later, Zabuza's figure appeared before Kisame's.

"You're here, finally." Zabuza said gruffly. His in game character resembled his true self but with added features like sharp teeth, and a scarier more demon like appearance. He had a lot of bandages covering his body and carried a greatsword. Above his head was the word "Abyss."

"Yeah, I'm here." Kisame said looking around.

"I'll invite you to the guild." Zabuza said pressing some buttons on his menu.

A moment later, Kisame felt a ping as an invitation flashed on his screen.

[You have been invited to join the guild Abyss. Would you like to accept? Yes/No]

_Yes._

A moment later, the flashing invitation was gone, and nothing had changed.

"Welcome to the guild." A voice Kisame didn't recognize said instantly.

"Welcome!"

"Great to have you here."

The welcomes continued for a while as every member said their welcome, though none bothered to introduce themselves.

"They're talking in guild chat – you can turn it off if it's annoying, but you shouldn't. Now that you're in the guild you can also go to the guild hall, which is a good place to go when you're not doing anything else or if you're crafting or blacksmithing. We have centers for that in the guild that are better to use then the town centers. You can teleport to the guild anytime by going to the guild menu and you can also see who is logged in and who isn't, along with your rank and the rank of others. Try going to the guild menu and exploring it now before we go do other things. The guild is a major part of this game." Zabuza explained.

Kisame nodded and pulled up the guild menu. The first thing that popped up were a list of users logged in and their rank.

[Abyss – Guild Rank 8 – Class A]

[Guild Leader – Mangetsu]

[Junior Leaders – Suigetsu, Zabuza]

[Rank A – Haku, Hidan, Tenten, Bee, Darui, Shisui]

[Rank B – Umi, Chojuro, Jenin, Kushimaru, Jinpachi, Ameyuri, Fuguki, Gozu, Meizou]

[Rank C – Kisame, Raiga, Ein, Ranmaru]

The next thing Kisame noted was the "Guild hall" option, which he assumed would teleport him to the guild hall.

"You seem to get it sort of. The guild rank is our rank among all the guilds in the server. As you can see we're a pretty high ranking guild – number 8 in the entire server. Class A is reserved for the top 20 guilds in a server. Your rank is based on the number of points your guild gains from boss runs, some users can even do it on their own but most require doing it with a guild or even several guilds if we're talking about bosses like the dragon."

_Itachi can solo a boss that takes several guilds to defeat?_ Suddenly Kisame was reminded of the distance between the two.

"Come on, let's go fight some monsters to make sure you know what you're doing, then I'll help you powerlevel and get some better equipment."

"Sounds good to me." Kisame said, grateful to have Zabuza help him through the game.

_Bing._

Kisame got a notification and immediately time stood still.

[Crow has logged in.]


	3. All This Time

The Other Side – Chapter 3: All this time

-.-.-

"Something wrong?" Zabuza asked Kisame, who was frozen in position.

"…" Kisame didn't speak right away, instead pulling up his friend's list to see the green next to Itachi's IGN(In game name). "Uh... Yeah everything is fine. Let's go battle."

Kisame could not bring himself to contact Itachi – he panicked. It was good that Zabuza was there to distract him, because otherwise Kisame had the feeling he would have ended up standing there, unmoving, for an hour or more wondering how to finally talk to the man.

-.-.-

Itachi logged in as usual and was greeted by a message from the Dusk, the package delivery man. Itachi, mainly to avoid having to deal with people, rarely added people to his friends list. Most of his acquaintances in game contacted him by sending him packages with messages, and then Itachi would personally contact them via the game messenger.

With a sigh, Itachi opened his message box and friends list. Immediately after, Itachi froze, wondering if what he saw was real.

[Online now]

[Shisui, Sasuke, Naruto, Kisame]

Kisame was online.

This wasn't real.

"Nii-san, Naruto and I are going on a multi-guild boss run again Carith, the dragon boss. Want to join?" Sasuke's voice came from the buddy chat.

"Sure." Itachi responded. He would wait and see if Kisame would contact him – did he ever get the messages Itachi had sent? If nothing else, after the boss run Itachi would find Kisame himself. Besides, Sasuke wouldn't ask Itachi unless it meant they needed a powerful player. "What guilds are running?"

"Audacity, Fury and our own Twilight." Naruto let himself in. The only reason Itachi added Naruto to his buddylist is because his little brother had asked him to help Naruto if he wasn't online when the kid first joined. He and Sasuke were close friends, and Itachi suspected there might be more.

"Are you sure you even need me? Audacity and Fury have some pretty strong members who can solo Carith."

"Yeah but Gaara, Gai, Kakashi, Neji and Lee are not going to be joining the battle." Sasuke responded. "It's mostly players of our level, to be honest we will probably die without you."

"Alright, I have something to do later so get everyone together at the entrance to Carith's cave within twenty minutes."

"Got it." Sasuke responded, switching to his guild chat.

Itachi switched his attention to his delivery box. Konan had sent the potions he had asked for earlier, and Juugo had upgraded his throwing knives and chakrams. Perfect, he could try out his chakrams in the upcoming battle, something he hadn't had a chance to do yet.

After picking up his deliveries, Itachi switched his attention to Kisame.

_Find Kisame. _Itachi ordered the game. The game allowed one to track anyone on a player's friendlist – one reason why Itachi rarely added friends. One could also track guild members in this way.

[Shark is currently at Roseham – Western Ridge, Wolf Territory]

_So he's fighting wolves, probably training. _Itachi thought. _I'll go find him later if he doesn't come to me. _

-.-.-

Itachi arrived at the entrance to Carith's cave and found everyone already waiting – which made sense because he decided to arrive at the last minute. He didn't like waiting around.

With a glance, Itachi took in the players. Some he recognized from Twilight, Sasuke's guild. Sasuke, Naruto, Choji, Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon were all present. From Audacity, Itachi only recognized Kankuro and Temari – neither of whom bossed without Gaara, usually. There were other's from Audacity that Itachi didn't recognize, but he ignored them. From Fury, Hinata was the only one Itachi recognized, but there were a few others as well.

_They're all pretty skilled, they may even be able to pull this off without me, depending on how strong the one's I don't recognize are. _Itachi thought.

[Sasuke invites you to join Carith expedition. Join? Yes/No]

_Yes._

"Split into two teams, I want a tank and cleric on each one." Sasuke ordered, taking the lead. "Take the right and left sides, tanks take the front lines of each side. Archers and thieves attack from the distance but protect your clerics. You know the drill. I'll be taking Carith head on and take most of his attention. If you understand, split now."

Most of these players had bossed with Sasuke before and knew the drill, already breaking into their respective teams. Once they were formed, Sasuke assigned them to either the left side or the right side.

"Itachi will take center and distract most of the attention and do the main damage, he's our main attacker, if he dies we all run – listen for my directions." Sasuke said to the group, then turned to Itachi. "Nii-san, left side has two clerics, do you need one?"

"I'll be fine." Itachi responded. He did not like working in groups. "Have the extra cleric run between both groups when necessary."

"Got it. Let's go everyone." Sasuke said, leading the way to the cave entrance. Everyone followed as a bright fairy blocked their path.

[NPC Aria: Carith has been terrorizing our kind for so long, are you sure you are ready for this?]

Every player had a message pop up, and every player responded the same way.

_Yes._

[NPC Aria: Brave adventurers, thank you for helping our race! We will be forever grateful for your help. You may continue to challenge Carith now.]

The adventurers all readied their weapons and entered the cave, getting into formation. Sasuke and Itachi stood in the center where a single golden coin lay on the ground. Take a dragon's treasure and he shall appear…

"Sasuke, I'll remove the coin, you go with your group." Itachi said, nodding towards his brother. Sasuke only nodded back, readying his bow as he took his place next to Naruto and Hinata on the left side.

Itachi looked around. _It looks like everyone's ready. _Satisfied that it was time, Itachi bent down and picked up the single gold coin.

The ground began to shake and Itachi jumped back several times, his chakrams appearing in both hands. The chakrams were white and blue, filled with the ice and water element. They were circular and with sharp edges and Itachi held them by the glimmering ice rod through their center. They were created specifically to fight Carith who was a fire type.

A moment later Carith came crawling out of the ground where the coin once stood, his scaley red skin and dusty blood red eyes meeting Itachi's bright crimson ones. His gaze was on the man who had stolen his precious coin and his eyes narrowed once he saw the coin, with a burst he flew out into the cave and roared loudly, filling the cave with his sound. His wings burst simultaneously, spreading throughout the cave and nearly hitting the parties to either side. No one dared to agro him until Itachi made his move.

Acting quickly, Itachi jumped into the air and filled his chakrams with magical energy and tossed them towards Carith, while both chakrams flew towards him, he cast a spell and lightening began to strike Carith from all angles. Carith summoned a barrage of rocks from the ceiling to do constant damage to the group.

That was all anyone needed. Sasuke began his assault with exploding arrows and used a skill that increased the party's critical attack, Naruto used his twin wind blades to attack up close, acting as a tank. Moegi cast protective shields on the left side, along with an experience and item drop booster. Choji focused on healing with his mage powers, butterfly wings growing from beside him – their wings let loose a powder that decreased visibility of their team so Carith couldn't attack at once. Konohamaru used his power to increase everyone's maximum health and general attack power, stomping his feet to generate earthquakes for power – his long golden spear began fusing with energy as he focused to attack and help Naruto tank. Udon attacked from the distance using throwing stars and large shuriken. Occasionally, he would come up close using his short term invisibility to stab Carith in the eye before retreating. Carith summoned small imps to attack the group, but most were quickly dissipated.

On the right side, Temari used her giant fan to blow gusts of wind and attack, she was also a tank for her own side. Kankuro attacked from the distance, summoning creatures while Hinata focused on healing her group and boosting their stats. There was a second tank, an archer, a thief and two other mages in their side acting together. Carith then used his special power, roaring and dropping everyone's health and mana to 1/1, everyone quickly used their potions and clerics replenished their mana so they could heal everyone before it was too late – one person died and was sent to town.

Above Carith was a large blue health bar, as the two teams on either side assaulted the bar went down at a steady rate – as each chakram of Itachi's hit the bar drastically jumped down by about 1/8th. Itachi's lightening was at a lower level and only helped with the steady decline but his chakrams were infused with water elemental damage and had a high critical attack rating. The chakrams came flying back to Itachi and he threw them back just as fast, landing on the ground after they flew a second time, Carith's blue health bar was now at half it's original.

Using a few seals to draw magical energy, Itachi summoned a dragon made of water and had it's pressurized attack cyclone into the unsuspecting fire dragon, causing it to scream out in anguish as steam filled the room.

"Thieves, take this chance to get up close and deal some major damage!" Sasuke screamed out, holding his own arrow to do his special attack. A moment later a barrage of golden arrows flew from the air at Carith, Naruto did the same, holding his twin blades in an X as he summoned the power of the fox to deal major damage.

A moment later, Carith's blue health bar disappeared showing a yellow one beneath. Itachi thought of Kisame and decided he needed to end this now – he was getting impatient. He jumped back several times again, avoiding Carith's sharp claws as they reached for him and yelled out "Naruto, cover me! Choji, come heal this side."

Naruto needed no other words, he ran out to the center and took a defensive position, acting as a tank for Itachi and taking the blunt of the blows. Choji flew over and began healing the trio, leaving Moegi as sole cleric of the left side. Itachi began to focus his energy as the group had Carith's yellow health bar down to half.

Konohamaru screamed out and began rapidly stabbing the dragon with his spear, dealing about one thousand harsh blows per minute. On the other side, Temari jumped into the air and used her fan to create gusts of wind, created small tornadoes to twist the dragon's wings and spikey tail. Kankuro managed to summon his most powerful summon – a demon warrior which ran forward, unafraid to die and attacked Carith with demonic strength.

Itachi's attack was ready – "Everyone out of the way, Naruto, Choji, go back to left side." Itachi called and released his power. The whole cave burst into holy light and a giant blade came out of the cave's top, stabbing straight through Carith before disappearing, but leaving behind a holy burning that spread through Carith dealing constant damage. Carith's yellow health bar and green health bar both depleted completely, leaving his final, red health bar which was now at half.

Grabbing his chakrams once more, Itachi swung them towards Carith as the group took advantage of the endgame to let loose their biggest attacks once more.

It took only about a minute more and Carith burst into a digital mosasic, leaving behind experience and items that were automatically dispersed to the group. Almost every leveled up, some several times.

Cheers were heard, and Itachi just turned and left, leaving the group to celebrate their victory.

NPC Aria appeared to congratulate the group, but Itachi was already gone by the time she arrived to give extra gifts to the brave adventurers.

A server message popped up that everyone in the server could see.

[Congratulations to the brave adventurers who after many trials have finally managed to defeat the tyrant Carith!]

-.-.-

"Looks like Carith's been taken down again." Zabuza noted as he and Kisame walked back to down. They had trained for a while and Zabuza had given Kisame some better equipment to use.

"Carith?"

"He is one of the more powerful bosses in the game, a dragon boss that usually takes a few guilds to beat. My beat is it was Twilight involved – they've been challenging Carith daily for the past month."

"Twilight is another guild, I'm assuming?" Kisame felt bored. This game was really not that much fun – though he had enjoyed it with Itachi before.

"That's right. They're really nothing special, a pretty weak guild actually, lead by some kid named Naruto. But for some reason they have ties to stronger guilds and I think there's a rumor that they can get Crow – one of the strongest players, who _never _parties with others – to join them sometimes. Their strength lies in connections I guess."

"I guess I'll have to get to know these guilds too." Kisame said with a sigh. "Though I should log out for now, I need to make dinner."

"Have fun." Zabuza said, shrugging.

-.-.-

Kisame turned off the game and stared blankly at the screen for a moment, before switching on his phone. Itachi had mentioned an app for the phone years ago – and Zabuza had been using it earlier. Kisame went to the app store and searched "Varnia," downloading the app for the game as he went downstairs to get dinner started.

Kisame didn't feel like making anything too complicated, so he just prepared some fish soup and checked to see if the app was finished installing. It was, so he turned it on and logged in to see he had over 30 notifications. Intrigued, he opened the notification box to see he had messages from "Crow." Not just one, a lot of messages.

A tinge of guild spread through Kisame, and an empty twisting feeling in his guy as he opened the oldest one.

[Dear Kisame,

I did not see you online today as we promised, I assume you are busy or had to leave your friends place. Contact me when you can, I will wait for you.

-Itachi]

Kisame couldn't eat, leaving his soup abandoned he opened the second message.

[Dear Kisame,

It's been about a month and I haven't seen you online, I'm guessing you won't be coming back, but for some reason, you've been on my mind. I want to talk to you. I've been playing the game for a while and it's starting to grow on me, I think I actually like it.

-Itachi]

The next message was three months later.

[Dear Kisame,

I no longer think you're actually getting this message, so I'm writing more for myself, to vent. I feel like I have no purpose in life, I go through the daily motions and find it's no longer worthwhile. There is a void I cannot describe, similar to what you spoke of long ago. I wonder, should I backpack in search of something to fill this void?

-Itachi]

There were a few more messages in between, similar to this one, in which Itachi spoke of his changing philosophy on life and even his own lonliness.

[Dear Kisame,

My brother has started to play the game. He is very dear to me, yet so cold and distant all the same. Perhaps it is my own fault? Somehow, through the game, he has begun to get closer. I'm glad.

-Itachi]

There were more messages talking about his life in the game and about his brother, or his brother's friend Naruto – who Kisame now realized was the leader of Twilight. _So that's how they get Itachi to join them – Itachi must've been fighting that dragon earlier._

Kisame read through all the messages and then put his phone down, regret and shame coursing through him. There was an empty pit in his stomach and he no longer had it in him to eat so he put the soup in the fridge and walked back to his computer upstairs, setting himself down on the chair.

_Now how do I speak to him? I don't deserve to be his friend._


	4. Depression

The Other Side – Chapter 4: Depression

-.-.-

Itachi opened up his buddylist, deciding to check before using the find option to well… find him.

[Online now]

[Sasuke, Naruto, Shisui]

_Did he delete me from his friends list? Or did he just log off again? _

There was a sinking feeling inside of Itachi and he closed his eyes. This was it. He was giving up on Kisame. It was his own fault anyway, why was he so obsessive? His obsession probably pushed the shark away to begin with. Itachi's fist clenched at his own weakness, and he teleported to his favorite spot.

-.-.-

"Sasuke, your brother left before even getting the extra rewards for Carith." Naruto observed, as the duo left the cave.

"Yeah, I don't know, he probably doesn't care." Sasuke shrugged. "By the way, do you think Sakura and Tenten found the star stone?"

"Probably." Naruto said with a grin. "Though we did finish Carith pretty fast so it might not be done yet."

"Let's go to the guild hall and check."

"Why, are you in that much of a hurry to get married?" Naruto teased.

"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke said, putting his bow away and burying himself into menu screens. "Plus Sakura and Tenten are pretty strong."

Naruto draped his arm around his lover and laughed. "You'll come to the marathon tomorrow right? It starts at 7AM."

"Yeah, and I'll kick your ass." Sasuke smirked, their rivalry was unaffected by their romance.

"We should log off if we plan to wake up on time." Naruto said. "We already got Carith for today and I don't think we can get everyone up for a second round."

"Sure, but star stone first." Sasuke insisted.

"They could take foreverrrr." Naruto whinned.

"Star. Stone." Sasuke teleported to the guild hall immediately afterwards, leaving Naruto there making a grumpy face.

-.-.-

"It's been a while since I've seen you here." Shisui said, his red eyes meeting Itachi's as he stood at the fjord.

"Same to you." Itachi calmed as he heard the roaring of the waterfall. The only thing that could be better was if it was real – if he could feel and smell it like he could in reality. Maybe he really should have gone backpacking after all. Suddenly Itachi was filled with hatred towards New York City, where he lived – the crowd, the grime, the constant sounds.

"We got a new member in our guild today but he's weak – he just started. He works with Zabuza and Haku which is probably how he got in."

"Hn." Itachi didn't feel like talking, so he just listened.

"I'm almost level 250 for my first rebirth." Shisui said. "How many times have you rebirthed now? Two?"

"Eight."

"Eight?!" Shisui nearly fell off the edge of the cliff in shock. "You must be the highest level player in the server."

Itachi shrugged.

"Like seriously, I don't know of anyone who has rebirthed more then two times, and there are only two other known players to get to that point."

Itachi looked out at the waterfall, he could feel the beginning of a migraine starting.

Shisui watched Itachi, and then relaxed, realizing the other was in one of those moods.

"Sasuke and Naruto are getting married. So are Sakura and Tenten." Shisui commented, "You know… we should get married too. There are lots of benefits like a shared inventory…" Shisui was hoping to distract the crow with both good news and a new possibility but it didn't seem to work.

Itachi glanced at Shisui and shrugged. "It's not my thing."

"Yeah, you and your lone wolf thing." Shisui closed his eyes as thoughts of worry for Itachi filled his mind.

"I was thinking of quitting for a while." Itachi said with a sigh. He had a feeling this game only made his depression worse. Maybe it was time for a change in scenery – maybe he should move out of the city. His uncle Madara lived in the mountains of Virginia, maybe he could go visit and possibly live there instead.

"What, seriously? Did something happen?" Shisui asked, alarmed.

"I've just been thinking I need a change of scenery." Itachi said.

"Well then let's get away from this fjord and go to a different town." Shisui was confused. "Any type of scenery you can imagine is here."

"But it's not real. I want to see a change of scenery in reality."

"You mean travel?"

"Yeah. Maybe I'll head down to Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia or Florida. All down the coast from here you know?"

"I can't imagine leaving New York." Shisui said. "Most of our family is here, our work, our everything. I mean what's there even to do in … Virginia or whatever? I mean okay Florida has Disney world I guess but I don't think that's what you're going for."

"Maybe I'll go to Rome or Beijing or Milan or something then." Itachi shrugged. "I just want to get out of here."

"Well, you're coming back right?" Shisui said. "You're not quitting work are you?"

"I don't know." Itachi responded, with a sigh. "I'm logging off."

"Bye." Shisui said, knowing this was a lost cause.

"Bye."

-.-.-

"We got the star stones." Sakura said at the guild hall, brushing aside her short, bubblegum pink hair.

"How much do you want for one?" Sasuke asked.

"It's free." Sakura threw the shining dark stone to Sasuke. "Consider it my wedding gift to you and Naruto."

"Thanks Sakura!" Naruto gave the pinkhead one of his trademark smiles that were as bright as the sun.

"You're welcome." Sakura twirled. "Now I'm going to sleep, I have to be in top condition to beat you guys in the marathon tomorrow."

"Keep dreaming." Sasuke said as he put the star stone into his inventory. "Just because you gave me this gift doesn't mean I'll let you win."

"Heh." Naruto grinned. "Both of you are going to be left in the dust."

"Yeah right." Sasuke and Sakura said simultaneously.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto said, making a face at the two before logging off. Sasuke and Sakura followed soon after, thinking of the marathon.

-.-.-

Itachi took off his headset and got off his computer chair, being careful to place his headset in its exact place. His entertainment room was completely spotless, and everything was organized with its own place. Itachi rubbed his temples and sighed.

_Great, another headache._ Itachi entered the bathroom and saw himself in the mirror. He had lost a lot of weight, it was like looking at a shell of his former self. The bags around his eyes were deeper then ever, his skin was sickly pale. His deep onyx eyes had lost their luster – it was like looking at a dead person. With a blink, Itachi turned the knob of the sink for cold water and washed his face, feeling a sickening, empty feeling deep in his stomach.

Itachi shut off the water, grabbed a towel and went straight for his bed. Falling into the comfortable sheets, he curled up and fell asleep almost instantly, hugging the towel.

-.-.-


	5. That's What Brothers Are For

The Other Side – Chapter 5: That's What Brothers Are For

-.-.-

Warnings: There's yaoi and yuri here but nothing explicit

-.-.-

"OH YEAH!" Naruto exclaimed after crossing the finishing line, sweat drenching his marathon shirt. He had a huge grin on his face with his hands behind his head.

"How the hell do you have that kind of energy still?" Sakura managed as she crossed the finishing line.

"He's like the energizer bunny." Sasuke panted, next to Sakura.

"Oh god, we did not need to know that." Tenten smirked, she was not at all tired, like Naruto.

"Tenten!" Sakura elbowed the brunette.

"In public you're such a prude but in the bedroom…" Tenten never got to finish her sentence because Sakura grabbed Tenten by the neck and bent her over violently, her exhaustion gone. "One more word and I'll make you suffer."

"Geez Sakura, get a room." Naruto teased. Sakura seemed to remember herself and promptly let Tenten go and with reddened cheeks she smiled sweetly. "Ahem… That was… That is…"

"We know, Sakura. We know." Tenten hugged her girlfriend. Inner Sakura was ready to punch Tenten but no movement was made.

Naruto turned his attention to Sasuke, who looked incredibly sexy with his hair and shirt wet from the sweat of running thirteen miles in their half marathon. He had his phone pulled out and was checking messages.

"Maybe we should all go for lunch?" Naruto suggested, inside he secretly wanted to just take Sasuke other places…

"Mmm I would love some pancakes with lots of syrup." Tenten said.

"I can't I have to go to my brothers place." Sasuke said, his face slightly furrowed in worry.

"Everything alright?" Sakura asked with concern and Naruto hopped over to where his lover stood.

"Yeah everything's fine." Sasuke smiled at Sakura. "You three go have breakfast and I'll see you guys later." Before Naruto could do anything, Sasuke grabbed Naruto and pulled him into a kiss, eliciting many perverted looks from both female and male onlookers all around.

"Mmm…" Naruto moaned into the kiss, trying to get his arms around the Uchiha, who promptly pushed him away and broke the kiss.

"Later." Sasuke smirked, turning around to leave.

"You tease!" Naruto called as Sakura and Tenten snickered and each put an arm around Naruto.

"Guess you're stuck with us for now." Tenten said.

"Pfft. Whatever, he misses pancakes and I get to walk around with a mini-harem." Naruto said with a pout.

"Mini-harem? Pervert." Sakura said, linking her arms with Naruto anyway. "But I'll let it slide because your boyfriend just left you hanging."

"Literally." Tenten said with her eyes traveling down towards Naruto's pants as she also linked arms with him.

"Aw just come on!" Naruto said enthusiastically, trying to mask his concern for Sasuke and change the topic from the bulge in his pants.

-.-.-

Sasuke fumbled through his keys to find the one to Itachi's apartment, making a mental note to get his brother one of those keyless entry locks so he wouldn't have to bother searching for a key the next time. After finding the small gold key, he quickly unlocked the door to the flawlessly clean apartment and let himself in.

Knowing his brother's tastes, Sasuke left his shoes on a rack near the entrance and picked up a pair of slippers that belonged to him before letting himself step on the carpet.

He looked around and noticed the lights were on in Itachi's bedroom. Stepping towads it, he placed his hand on the door and wondered whether he should knock or just enter. Decided on the former, he rapped his knuckles against the hard wooden door. No response.

"Nii-san?" Sasuke called as he opened the door slowly.

Itachi was sleeping. In bed. Hugging a towel. With the lights on. At 1 pm. That in itself was enough to ring bells in Sasuke's head that things were not okay – but what really shocked Sasuke as he stepped closer was how thin Itachi had become.

Sasuke had seen how Itachi had began to skip meals and stop caring for himself due to his addiction to the game but in the two weeks since Sasuke had seen him last Itachi seemed to have gotten even worse. His teeth clenching in anger at the game, Sasuke stepped forward and spoke louder.

"Nii-san!" Sasuke shook his brother gently trying to get him to wake up.

Itachi stirred and opened his eyes. "… Sasuke?" He mumbled as he got out of bed, eyes slightly red and hair messy.

"Yes, it's me. You need to wake up."

"What time is it?"

"It's 1 PM."

Itachi groaned upon hearing Sasuke's words. With a sigh he got out of bed and composed himself. "Why are you here?" He asked his brother.

"Yahiko called me and said you didn't show up for work. He was worried about you." Sasuke watched his brother stretch. "I'm worried about you."

Itachi looked at his brother from the side, surprised. "You're worried about me?"

"Of course!" Sasuke was angry now. "Why didn't you call me and tell me what was going on? You're clearly not your normal self."

"I'm fine." Itachi responded, heading towards the bathroom. "Thanks for worrying about me."

Sasuke crossed his arms and watched his brother close shut the door behind him. With a shake of his head, he made his brother's bed and folded the towel Itachi had been hugging the night before, placing it in the laundry room as he heard the shower running.

Sasuke then went to Itachi's closet and tried to find something casual – difficult because everything Itachi owned was either fancy or looked fancy. Finally, Sasuke managed to find a pair of black jeans and a long sleeved red shirt with a strange design of white and black clouds, trees and a sun. Sasuke also picked up some clean undergarments. Placing the clothes in a hanger, Sasuke walked over to the bathroom door and hung the hanger on the doorknob.

"I put your clothes on the doorknob" Sasuke called. "We're going out for lunch."

Sasuke left Itachi's room and headed for the other bedroom – the one Itachi had converted into an entertainment room. There was a large corner computer desk with the gameset. The other side had a sofa and a large TV with speakers. Sasuke looked at the gameset – not a single speck of dust could be found on the helmet.

Looking at it filled Sasuke with the urge to destroy it – he picked it up and began inspecting it. Destroying it wouldn't stop Itachi from buying another one. Sasuke's fingers clenched around the helmet as he considered tossing it out of the apartment anyway – they were on the seventh floor so there was a good chance it wouldn't survive the fall.

Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted when Itachi entered the room, wearing the clothes Sasuke had put on the doorknob. "Are you feeling okay Sasuke?"

"_You're _asking me?" Sasuke put emphasis on the "you're."

"Yes, I am. Not only did you come to visit 'because you're worried' but you even put my clothes out for me, and now you want to go to lunch?" Itachi felt he was in a parallel dimension. "Do you want something? What's gotten into you?"

"What's gotten into me is that my big brother has an unhealthy addiction to an online game that's caused him to lose a ton of weight, sleep and happiness." Sasuke said angrily. He was never good with comforting people, the negative emotions just seemed easier to spill out. "I'm actually worried about you, Itachi-nii. It's not because I want something from you."

Itachi blinked. "Who are you and what have you done to my little brother?"

"Itachi!" Sasuke dropped the honorific, and glared at his brother.

Itachi laughed, something he hadn't done in a while, and pulled his brother in for a hug. "Thank you, Sasuke."

"I.. er…" This was unexpected. Sasuke's cheeks were slightly red with embarrassment and he was about to shove Itachi off when he pulled away and ruffled Sasuke's hair.

"You've grown, Sasuke. I didn't even notice. Is it because of your boyfriend?" Itachi winked.

"You were too busy playing." Sasuke ignored the comment about Naruto, but couldn't help the barest curl of a smile at the edge of his lips from forming.

"I'm sorry." Itachi seemed genuinely sad at the realization that he missed out on his brother because of the game.

"You should take a break from the game." _Or I'll personally come destroy every damn set you buy. _

"I planned to anyway. I'm probably not going to play again for a while."

"Good. Now let's go get something to eat, I ran thirteen miles and I'm hungry as hell."

"That explains your grumpiness." Itachi smiled again, his eyes still sad.

"Shut up. Food." Sasuke walked past Itachi and put his hands in his pockets.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Three weeks later

-.-.-.-.-.-

Itachi was on the airplane to Virginia, heading to meet his uncle Madara. He sat on his seat and looked out of the window to his right side, the plane had just taken off and the flight attendant was coming around with drinks.

"Sir?" The flight attendant asked, trying to get Itachi's attention.

"Oh, just water please." Itachi turned to face the attendant, who was already pouring water into a small cup.

"Thank you." Itachi said as it was handed to him.

"Your welcome! Also, feel free to use the WiFi on the plane, it's a new feature."

"Planes have WiFi now?" Itachi said intrigued. "Thanks for letting me know, I'll try it."

Pulling out his phone, Itachi connected to the wifi. _Now what should I do? _

By force of habit, he clicked the Varnia app. _I promised Sasuke I wouldn't play Varnia… But this isn't playing right? I'll just check a few things…_

[You have 40 notifications.]

_Huh? 40? That's more then I expected. _Itachi thought. He had been expecting a few delivery notifications but that was it. Itachi opened the notifications and his eyes widened.

[21 messages from Shark.]

Twenty one. One for each day since Itachi stopped playing. Unable to hold back his smile, Itachi eagerly opened the messages.

[Dear Itachi,

It's me Kisame. I'm sorry I didn't respond to your messages earlier, I didn't have access to the game. Or a smartphone. Or internet. I'm here now though! I can play the game everyday and I just… Can we talk in game? When can we meet? How? Let me know and let's meet up as soon as possible.

-Kisame]

That was from the first day. Itachi suddenly felt guilty for quitting the exact day Kisame happened to ask for him. _Just my luck. _Itachi opened the next message.

[Dear Itachi,

I haven't gotten a message from you yet, I guess you're busy. I thought you played everyday but that would be weird right? I mean we might even live in different time zones by now. You know, this whole time I didn't forget about you either.

-Kisame]

Itachi's heart swelled as he read that last sentence. _You know, this whole time I didn't forget about you either. _If Itachi's smile could get any wider, it did. _My jaw hurts from smiling, I probably look like an idiot and I don't care!_

[Dear Itachi,

Now I'm starting to worry about you. Or maybe you're mad and ignoring me, which I completely understand. But in case something is actually wrong, call me? Or text? Or something? My number is (098)123-4321.

-Kisame]

_What do I say? I want to call him. No, I should text first. _

Switching to the texting app, Itachi started a text then re-wrote it about a hundred times. Eventually, he was finally able to come up with something to say that didn't sound completely ridiculous in his head.

Itachi: Hi. This is Itachi.

-.-.-


End file.
